These are traits that have, until now, seemed out of reach for many iPhone adventures. Beneath a Steel Sky somehow feels bigger and bolder than its rivals, raising the bar and highlighting what others have so far failed to achieve. Perfectly suited to its new home, Revolution's remastering of an already established gem serves up point-and-click play nearly unmatched on the App Store. This is a story rich and layered throughout, gifting iPhone gamers with a trip back in time that feels like a grand step forward.

All in all the gameplay is not really complicated, the puzzles are challenging, but mostly logical (so you won’t have to look for the craziest possible solution) and you don’t have to fear that every single mistake will end up in a frustrating death. So the gaming experience is superb and this game is defiantly a gem in its own right, capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the best of adventured Sierra or LucasArts ever put on the market!

BASK is a beautifully crafted and animated adventure. The graphics are totally superb. The minor niggle I had with the game was that there was a slight delay in loading between each location and the music occasionally tends to be a bit boppy - perhaps some moody atmospheric stuff might have been better.

Nowhere is as much energy and excitement being thrown about as the graphic adventure market. It's hard to guess what makes them so playable and so popular: the graphics? The complexity of the puzzles? The number of icons you have to play with? Whatever it is, no-one can deny that there's nothing like a good graphic adventure to stop you from actually interacting with the rest of the human race for a week or two. Possibly one of the most important advances for the graphic adventure was Revolution's Lure of the Temptress. A challenging and involving game, it's strongest feature was the implementation of the (then) new Virtual Theatre system.A virtual play tries to create a realistic backdrop to a game, where locations connect sensibly and everything is believable. That is not its strong point, though.

T Beneath a steel sky here is a brief moment in Terry Gilliam’s weird an nightmarish film Brazil when you think the hero has finally defeated the forces of darkness that threaten to surround him. Beneath A Steel Sky is a lot like that.
Ostensibly a follow up to the acclaimed Lure of the Temptress , Beneath A Steel Sky places you firmly in the shoes of hero Robert Foster who is abruptly abducted from his wasteland home and set down in a strange and violently unfriendly city. Only by uncovering a series of mysterious events can Foster piece together the missing parts of his life and defeat the evil which surrounds him.

Some of the funniest dialog ever; simple interface; runs entirely off the CD. The difficulty of the puzzles in the final third of the game is disproportionately high. A slick, funny, and absorbing adventure that will appeal to a wide variety of gamers--two thumbs up!

90

Amiga CD32Amiga CD32 Gamer

BASS doesn't quite match the charm and laff factor if the Monkey Island games. Despite their age, they're still the yardstick by which all other shall be measured. Unfortunately neither has yet appeared on the CD32. In their absence, this must go down as the best CD adventure about.

Since the iPhone itself would have been a ridiculously futuristic device 16-years ago, some of the future looks a little, er, dated, but the general themes of urban corruption and totalitarian governance still feel all too relevant. Despite its age, this is a really solid and classic piece of adventure gaming, and if you enjoy well-written, deeply immersive games like Monkey Island or Broken Sword, you will almost certainly enjoy Beneath A Steel Sky.

These are traits that have, until now, seemed out of reach for many iPhone adventure games. Beneath a Steel Sky somehow feels bigger and bolder than its rivals, raising the bar and highlighting what others have so far failed to achieve. Perfectly suited to its new home, this remastering of a classic game serves up point-and-click play nearly unmatched on the App Store.

Beneath a Steel Sky already brings along all positive characteristics and stylistic elements, which then should be continued in the first two parts of Broken Sword and which have made the series legendary: An exciting, thought out story is told and the interesting puzzles are well integrated into the game. It's a downright pleasure, to follow the subliminal, slightly uncouth humour and quirky word joke, which are abundant, if e.g. our protagonist and his robot friend are bantering.

The overall enjoyment of Steel Sky also suffers from the resurrection fallacy (having to die before figuring out a solution) and this would not be a big deal if the game allowed for random saving. Rather, it is broken up into stages that reward a player with a code at the end of each level. But this and the game's other shortcomings do little to diminish its overall quality, and they probably won't stop you from wanting to persist and finish it.

The first thing you notice when you look at Beneath A Steel Sky is that it is a bit of a multi-media experience. If you load up the game straight away, you are not going to have a clue what is going on, and if you read the little comic that comes with it, then it leaves a lot to be desired as far as character and plot progressions are concerned. However, if you go the whole hog and read the comic before loading the game, then you are getting somewhere.
The comic is drawn by David Gibbons (of Watchmen fame) and charts Foster’s last day in the Gap, a sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland. He is wrenched from his adopted family and the only life he has ever know by a group of armed men from the city. They immediately show that they are bad boys by shooting his pet robot Joey, hustiling Foster into a chopper, and then killing everyone else with a huge bomb.

This stripped-down, bare bones control scheme has the advantage of utter transparency and the obvious disadvantage of reducing the scope of the player's options in any given situation. The game's puzzles aren't all easy, but heaven knows that limiting the number of possible actions a player can perform makes them considerably easier than they would otherwise be. A good gamer will plow through the game in something like four of five hours, an expert gamer in two or three. Normally this would bother me; but normally we would be talking about a game that was much less fun than STEEL SKY is. Good writing can make up for almost any other shortcoming, and it certainly does here, where even the simple puzzles are deliciously eccentric and even the least interactive dialogues are extremely funny.

80

iPhonePocket Gamer UK

Fortunately, there are enough laughs to cut through these complaints. Beneath a Steel Sky remains as entertaining as it was 15 years ago, even if these laughs could have been showcased in a better overall package.

While it’s one of the more expensive apps on the market at $4.99, Beneath a Steel Sky – Remastered makes a solid showing on its new platform and justifies its price admirably. Adventure enthusiasts who have never played the game have no excuse not to download this classic, and existing fans of the game will likely enjoy the new format. However, since the game is legally free to download for PC, it all depends on how important the mobile aspect is to you. One thing is for sure, at least. This enhanced port shows that the iPhone and iPod Touch can easily handle adventure games along with the more casual games they’re currently known for. Technology may have been the bane of the city denizens in this game, but it has sure made my subway rides more entertaining for the last few days.

Overall, Beneath a Steel Sky is an adventure game that stands alone among its peers. It is also a rare example of a commercial game in which the developer has since decided to freely release it to the community years later. While Revolution Software has repeatedly mentioned of a possible sequel to the game, there has not been any official announcement of it so far to date.

In 1948, George Orwell wrote his dystopian masterpiece, 1984, about a society whose citizens were under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. Decades later, researchers have proved that our reliance on credit and store loyalty cards, mobile phones and computers could allow our day-to-day lives to be monitored in minute detail. The world has become increasingly dependent upon computer technology, but what if this dependency is abused? This is the premise at the heart of Revolution’s 1994 release, Beneath a Steel Sky. Set in a futuristic environment, BASS pushes our fears to their most chilling logical conclusion — a totalitarian society in which humans have become slaves to progress.

As Rosemary will attest, I am not a huge fan of wise cracking inventory quests (think Gilbert and Monkey Island); but I did rather enjoy my time as Foster. More than that, there are many newer games with infinitely superior graphics and sound that are inferior experiences to this. It's also easy to see the debt that the Broken Sword games owe to Beneath a Steel Sky. On the strength of this game, there should definitely be more such re-releases, and I will certainly try a few more DOS experiences.

I have a hard time pushing people to purchase a copy of a game when the version I enjoy more is free, but the game still has merit and even more so for those who don’t have access or time for the PC version. For those at all curious, you can find the full original version for free online at sites such as Good old Games. If you find that you really enjoy the PC version it likely will be worth your while to buy the iPhone version at $2.99, just note that it cannot quite replace the experience of playing it on a PC.

The pace of the game can hardly be termed exciting, and this isn't helped by being a little bit too easy for most players. Say the right thing or use the right object, and progress can be quick without too much thought. It's okay while it lasts, but there's better stuff.

20

iPhoneGameCola.net

In conclusion, BS Remastered is a bad game. I feel kind of bad for it, because I can see the good adventure game inside it, just waiting to get out. For example, the graphics are really good, and the animation quality looks perfect! But all the goodness of the game is trapped by a plethora of humorless jokes which make the gameplay unenjoyable.